Revolving-brush cleaner



Dec. 8, 1925 REVOLVING BRUSH CLEANER Filed July 15. 3

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UNITED STATES JOSEPH A. MOANERNEY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

REVOLVING-BRUSH CLEANER.

Application filed July 13, 1923. Serial No. 651,351.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. MoANER- NEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Revolving-Brush Cleaners; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others'skilled in the art to'which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to improvements in revolving brush cleaners for use in connection with vacuum cleaning apparatus. i r

The invention has for an object to provide for the efi'ective and thorough cleaning of the bristles of the revolving brush used to brush the carpet and located in the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner; the invention comprising a duplex arrangement of combs disposed in the nozzle at opposite sides of the brush, and mounted for pivotal movement, in order to enable one comb to function while the other comb assumes an inoperative position where the bristles of the brush will sweep ast the teeth thereof and remove the lint, t read and other collected matter received thereon incident to'a prior cleaning operation by this comb.

The brushes are, of course, adapted to rotate in both directions, and when rotating in one direction, the device is so arranged that one comb will be automatically brou ht into an operative position while the ot er comb is automatically moved out of the way of the bristles by the rotary action of the bristles themselves.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device foraccomplishing the above described purposes in which no appreciable modification of the standard nozzle construction is necessary, and wherein the parts are compactly arranged and may be con structed at very little additional expense over the usual form of brush and nozzle.

With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention consists in certain details of construction and in certain arrangements of parts, all as hereinafter more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings, wherein like parts are denotedby like symbols throughout the several views:

Fig. 1 shows in plan a portion of a vacuum cleaner with a nozzle shown in section and illustrating the improved cleaner applied thereto,

, Fig. 2 is a cross section through the noz- ..zle showing the cleaner combs,

Fig. 3 is a perspective View of one of the combs,

Fig. 4 shows an end view of the comb as detached from the machine; and Fig. 5 shows a section along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4, and looking to the right.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 5 designates a general vacuum cleaner of any approved type, and 6 represents the nozzle construction through which the dust and other foreign matter is drawn from the carpet or other material to be cleaned into the bag or receiver of'the cleaner. In accordance with the well known action of devices of this character, a fan or blower is employed to create a suction in the nozzle 6, and the nozzle is moved over the carpet or the like as indicated in Fig. 2, the carpet being drawn up into the mouth of the nozzle which is directed downwardly.

In the nozzle is journaled a shaft 7, appropriate bearings being provided therefor, in the end walls of said nozzle, and upon the shaft are bunches .of bristles 8, projecting radially therefrom, and spaced apart, both circumferentially and axially. This brush structure receives rotation during the movement of the vacuum cleaner over the floor, and the bristles brush the carpet, which is drawn 11 into the nozzle in the manner indicated in Fig. 2. Motion is imparted to the shaft 7 in any appropriate manner, as for instance, by the belt 9 shown in Fig. 1, the belt being driven by the roller 10.

According to the invention, a pair of combs such as shown in Fig. 3 are provided in conjunction with the brush, each comb comprising a rod 11 having end journals 12, formed by projections of the rod. These journals are received in bearings provided by the end walls of the nozzle 6 as shown in Fig. 1. The rods 11 are further provided with teeth 13 in suitable number, and located.

at suitable intervals apart along said rod, the teeth preferably being relatively Wide at their base portions, Where they connect with the rod in order to secure strength, and tapering ofi to relatively fine points, the teeth being also preferably curved upwardly at opposite sides of the brush as shown in Fig. 2.

In other words, the teeth of one comb are curved oppositely to that of the other comb. Beneath the rods are shoulders or abutments 14 positioned to be encountered by the inner portions of the teeth when in substantiallg; a horizontal position as shown to the le in Fig. 2. I

In the use of the device, if we assume that the brush is rotating in a counter-clock wise direction, the bristles, which overlap the teeth of the combs will have a tendency automatically to drive the teeth of the left brush downwardly against the stop 14, but will lift the right brush upwardly and substantially against the wall of the nozzle, although this comb will have a tendency to fall except when in actual contact with the bristles of the brush. The rounded contour of the teeth at their lower or under sides will facilitate this lifting movement. Of course, whenthe brush is rotated in an'opposite or clock wise direction, the left hand comb will be lifted or rotated about its rod 11, while the right comb will be forced down against its abutment 14. I

As indicated in Fig. 1, the teeth or the combs willbe arran ed directly in the path of rotation of bunc es of the bristles, and

these bristles will be required to pass throu h the teeth during the course of rotation. 11 this way, the lint, thread and other foreign matter picked up by the bristles will be stripped therefrom by the teeth 13, and freed to the action of the suction, which will draw these particles up through the nozzle and into the receiving bag. At the same time, the teeth of the combs will become entwined with considerable of this foreign matter and the tendency of the bristles 1n descending upon the u turned teeth will be to engage thread and int therewith. However, when the direction of rotation of the brush is .reversed, the bristles will then brush from beneath, u wardly across the curved faces of the teet and the tendency will be to brush the teeth clean of the lint, thread and other matter accumulated during a previous cleaning operation. As a consequence, by the repeated reversals of the motion of the brush, the combs will be kept clean, and this clean condition is, of course, necessary to the preserving of. the bristles in a clean state and in an active condition for duty.

It will be further understood that after the thread, lint and ravellings have been swept off the comb by the action of the bristles of the brush that this litter is then carried away by the suction which also aids in the removing of the litter from the bristles. The removal of this litter or accumulated matter from the bristles of the brush is facilitated by the fact that the upper edges or sides of the comb teeth are sharpened or provided with knife edges which serve to cut the threads, lint, litter and the like. In this way, the litter is reduced to smaller pieces, which are more readily carried away by the suction. The

sharpened character of the teeth is more particularly shown in Fig. 3.

I have illustrated only one mechanical embodiment of which the invention is susceptible, but desire it to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made in the arrangement and disposition of the parts without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I reserve the right to all such changes as maycome within the scope of the following claim:

I claim:

In a vacuum cleaner, a nozzle having an open mouth at its lower end and adapted to be connected at its upper end to a source of vacuum, a rotary shaft journaled in said nozzle, traction operated means by which the shaft is rotated in one or the other direction according to the direction of movement of the vacuum cleaner, bristles on the shaft, a pair of combs in the nozzle one at each side of said shaft and composed of rods mounted for free rocking movement and spaced teeth on the rods, said rods and teeth being placed at substantially the same elevation with the shaft, the teeth being curved inwardly and upwardly and having upwardly pro'ecting inner free points to engage the bristles and knife edges along the upper portions of the teeth; to cut the material received from the bristles, and stops in the nozzle beneath the rods and adapted to engage the teeth to hold the latter in an approximately horizontal position, the upwardly moving bristles at the other side of the shaft ada ted to swing the companion, teeth upwardly to clean the Samet i JOSEPH A. MoANERNEY. 

